FOREST - The plan seems to be this: If we wait until mid-May, then perhaps the state will have increased revenue receipts and therefore the Legislature will be able to put more money in education and thus avoid another standoff over budgetary items.
It's a good plan, one that should make several people happy. Schools will get more money. Other state agencies perhaps will not be cut as deeply. Republicans can sit by their "no new taxes" pledge. Democrats can claim victory with more spending for key areas.
But should the general public be pleased with this solution? Not really. It still does not change the fact that legislators failed miserably in the regular session to do their most essential job-provide a fiscal road map for the next budget year.
Furthermore, a wait-and-see strategy is just simply another one-time fix for a greater problem. It seems that in recent years legislators have hung their hats on the hope of a better tomorrow, only for a better tomorrow never to materialize. Given, tax revenues have increased over the past few years, but so have demands for services. That equation equals tougher and tougher budgeting sessions each year.
This session legislators were faced with a scary proposition: fill in holes without a ready source of one-time money. Caught like deer in a spotlight, lawmakers were rendered paralyzed. Essentially, so was state government.
Now the governor has come up with an alternative to one-time money - a one-time approach to the budgeting process. In other words, we'll just wait and see what happens with the revenue stream.
But what will happen next year? Health care costs will rise, education costs will rise and corrections will still need more money to house inmates. State workers will need pay raises to keep up with the cost of living, and our teachers will still be near the bottom of the pay scale heap both in the Southeast and nationally.
In short, more money will be needed next year. Will costly special sessions become the norm for our legislative budgeting process?
The summer will be spent with the same rain dances being performed in hopes that revenue increases will somehow outpace their historical trends and provide enough money for everyone next year.
And just in case anyone forgets, no assurance of more money exists in May. Lawmakers and the governor are just hoping against hope that fate will deal them a hefty hand. If it doesn't, they are back to square one with Democrats demanding an increase on cigarette taxes and Republicans pushing a cut-only agenda.
If Republicans win and the Senate holds true to Barbour's pledge of no tax increases, it will be a sad day for education in Mississippi. To increase the tax on buying cigarettes to help shore up public education in our state is a no-brainer. It must and should be done.
Facts are abundant when it comes to where our state ranks nationally on education. We're next to the bottom in per-pupil spending, and we're at the bottom on success in reading and math. Our teachers are underpaid, even with the pay raise that ends this year.
Public education is getting the shaft from some politicians. It's great that Barbour's budget will increase education spending by 4 percent over last year. The fact is that his budget still underfunds what educational professionals working in the schools say is needed. Furthermore, Barbour's 4 percent increase underfunds the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which is an essential key to the process, one that helps ensure equality among all of our districts from the poorest to the wealthiest.
Come time for a special session, let's all pray that enough money has been generated so that tough decisions by our political leaders will not be required. For faith in them should be low and should remain so until they make the tough decisions required of their stature.
And if the rains of money do not come, let's hope that basic educational needs outweigh political allegiance, though so far it has not.
